2of7PITTSBURGH, PA - MAY 03: Jurickson Profar #23 of the Oakland Athletics hits an RBI single to right field in the fourth inning during the game against the Pittsburgh Pirates at PNC Park on May 3, 2019 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Justin Berl/Getty Images)Photo: Justin Berl / Getty Images

3of7Oakland Athletics' Josh Phegley, left, celebrates with first base coach Al Pedrique after driving in a run with a single off Pittsburgh Pirates starting pitcher Joe Musgrove in the third inning of a baseball game in Pittsburgh, Friday, May 3, 2019. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)Photo: Gene J. Puskar / Associated Press

4of7PITTSBURGH, PA - MAY 03: Josh Phegley #19 of the Oakland Athletics hits a three run RBI double to left field in the fourth inning during the game against the Pittsburgh Pirates at PNC Park on May 3, 2019 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Justin Berl/Getty Images)Photo: Justin Berl / Getty Images

5of7PITTSBURGH, PA - MAY 03: Khris Davis #2 of the Oakland Athletics celebrates with teammates in the dugout after coming around to score on an RBI single by Josh Phegley #19 of the Oakland Athletics in the third inning during the game against the Pittsburgh Pirates at PNC Park on May 3, 2019 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Justin Berl/Getty Images)Photo: Justin Berl / Getty Images

6of7PITTSBURGH, PA - MAY 03: Brett Anderson #30 of the Oakland Athletics delivers a pitch in the first inning during the game against the Pittsburgh Pirates at PNC Park on May 3, 2019 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Justin Berl/Getty Images)Photo: Justin Berl / Getty Images

PITTSBURGH — Oakland’s sluggish offense chugged into action at PNC Park on Friday and, as it turns out, all it took was a record flood of RBIs from catcher Josh Phegley and even some hits from pitcher Brett Anderson.

That’s right, the A’s No. 8 and 9 hitters — including self-described athletically challenged Anderson — were catalysts in a 14-1 romp over the Pirates, ending Oakland’s six-game losing streak. The A’s had scored 15 runs, total, in the first six games of the trip and had 33 hits; they had 16 hits Friday.

“The timing was good,” Phegley said. “We needed a win, and everyone pretty much exploded offensively. I just happened to be the guy coming up in the bases-loaded spots and getting some big hits.”

Phegley smacked three-run doubles in the second and fourth innings, provided an RBI single in between those, then homered in the ninth.

His eight RBIs were the most by a catcher in A’s franchise history.

“Really fun baseball,” Phegley said. “You can’t do something like that unless the guys in front of you are getting on base.”

“I asked him if that was one of his higher RBI nights in the big leagues, and he said times three,” manager Bob Melvin said. “That’s a pretty amazing night. A night you never forget. For some guys, that’s a month, more. Just a phenomenal night.”

Phegley is batting .385 with 19 of his 21 RBIs on the road, while his average at the Coliseum is .176.

Kendrys Morales, who entered the game batting .154, chipped in with his biggest night since being acquired from Toronto in March, recording his first three-hit game with the A’s. He also scored three runs.

Anderson, who’d told The Chronicle two days earlier that running the bases was his greatest fear “maybe in life,” was on base three times. An error on his sacrifice bunt attempt in the second put him on second base, and he had singles in the third and fourth, giving him 10 hits for his big-league career.

“Running the bases is still terrifying,” Anderson said. “Especially the first one, when I had to go to second and blacked out, basically. But I’ll take the two hits.”

He also pitched well, despite a 41-minute rain delay to start the game. He walked Adam Frazier, the Pirates’ leadoff man, and Frazier eventually came around to score, but that was it. Anderson allowed just four hits and two walks and he struck out four in six innings.

Anderson was coming off a rough game in which he allowed a season-high 10 hits and six runs; an early error by Jurickson Profar contributed to the mess. Other than that game, he hasn’t allowed more than three runs in a start.

Profar, who’d sat the final two games in Boston in order to work on his defensive difficulties, collided at second with shortstop Marcus Semien in the first inning Friday, preventing a potential inning-ending double play and costing Anderson his only run, but there was no error on the play because Semien still got the out at second. And in the fifth, with plenty of time on a grounder by Starling Marte, Profar misfired on a throw to first base.

Matt Chapman added a two-run homer in the seventh, his ninth of the year. It was just the third home run of the trip for Oakland until Phegley’s solo shot.

Susan Slusser has worked at The San Francisco Chronicle since 1996. She has been a member of the Baseball Writers Association of America since 1993 and in 2012 became the only woman to be elected president in the 111 years of the organization. She has written about many other sports for the paper, particularly hockey and, more recently, e-sports.

Susan previously covered the Texas Rangers for the Dallas Morning News, the Orlando Magic for the Orlando Sentinel, and the NBA and other sports for the Sacramento Bee.

Susan is an on-air correspondent for the MLB Network and makes regular appearances on 95.7 FM The Game. Her book about the A’s, 100 Things A's Fans Need to Know and Do Before They Die, came out in 2014 and she and A’s radio announcer Ken Korach are working on a book that will come out in 2019.